Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

By: Scott Dickson

When asked if they’re utilizing the power of social media and relationship marketing, many business-owners and CMO’s will reply, “Of course! We have an awesome Facebook page and we’re getting started on Twitter.”

Well, that’s great. But, setting up a Facebook page and linking your posts to a Twitter profile doesn’t mean you’re “on Twitter.” It means you’re doing it wrong.

In my opinion, you’re putting all your eggs in one basket by relying too heavily on Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is a huge piece of the puzzle. But, if you’re not executing effectively AND not implementing other social media platforms, you’re missing opportunities to engage your potential audience.

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the planet. If you do a search for your company, will it appear in the search results? Better yet, if you own a restaurant in Charlotte, do you have a video tagged appropriately that shows up in a YouTube search for “restaurants in Charlotte”?

If you’re business to business, you must be on LinkedIn, right? Are you a wedding photographer with pictures saturated and tagged on Flickr? If you’re a movie theater you must be using Foursquare to reward your mayor and other customers checking in. And how about Twitter? Are you engaged? Do you really know what it means to be engaged on Twitter, or are you just pushing out content?

Are you utilizing the power of social bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Propeller, Stumbleupon, etc.?  Have you claimed your blog at Technorati? Do you even have a blog? Is your website set up to convert visitors into potential customers?

Is your head spinning?

Chances are pretty good you’ve watched this video ad nauseum. But, it does drive home the point that there are other platforms to pay attention to.

So, yes…Facebook is gigantic and amazing.  You’d be crazy not to work very hard to have a commanding presence there. However, you shouldn’t stop at Facebook.

Take the time and do the research on the other opportunities…or, you can always just contact me!

A shameless plug, no doubt. But, hey…it is my blog.

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The world has gone social media crazy. With over 400 million users, Facebook leads the pack as the largest, most active and most time consuming social network of choice. Facebook is fun, easy to use and never ceases to amaze me how it connects me with old friends and family.

However, in my opinion there are a couple of things about Facebook that aren’t garnering enough attention, but need to be addressed.

Recently we all heard in the mainstream media and in the social world about Facebook’s privacy issues. There was considerable chatter about “Facebook alternatives” popping up and the potential demise of Facebook. Needless to say, this seems to have passed rather quickly.

Still, I belive there is way too much transparency on social media as a whole…but, especially on Facebook. What I see is a lot of people who still haven’t figured out how to secure their privacy settings. If you don’t care if robbers see your photos, email address, where you live, where you work, etc…please disregard this.

I believe it’s a mistake to post on Facebook that you’re on vacation or away from home for awhile. If you are bound and determined to do that…please make sure your privacy settings are set in a certain way. If they’re not, it’s very easy for robbers to do what they do best.

First of all, do you really need to include private, pertinent information like address & phone number in your profile? (Answer: no.) Do you also include where you work and where you go to church? If you do, then it’s even more important to set all your privacy settings on Facebook to “friends only.”

Let’s say you have 200 Facebook friends and you’ve included where you work in your profile AND you have some of your settings set to “friends of friends.” Do you know all 200 of your friends AND THEIR FRIENDS? Probably not. If this is the case, there’s no way you can be sure who else is able to see certain areas of your profile. 

Here’s what can happen: A robber finds your profile through one of their friends. You just posted that you’re at the beach on vacation. On your profile you’ve left off your address and phone number, but you do have your current employer listed. The robber simply prints off your profile picture, Googles your employer’s address and follows you home from work when you leave one afternoon. Now the robber knows where you live. So, the next time you post that you’re on vacation…the robber goes to work. It’s that simple.

Now, that’s a pretty creepy scenario to think about. But, it can and does happen.

Here’s the real point I’m trying to make: lock down those privacy settings. Make sure all your information, pictures, wall posts…everything…is set to “friends only.” You might also consider leaving as much information as possible off your profile. Your close, personal friends probably already have your phone number and know where you work & live.  Also, think twice about posting that you’re on vacation. Play it safe…wait and share your photos when you return.

Along these lines…I will be posting soon about teens and college students on social media, how you should conduct yourself on social media and how to use social media to land a new job.

To learn how we can help, CONTACT US!

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By: Scott Dickson

Your employees should be some of your biggest evangelists and ambassadors. When launching a social media marketing plan, it’s very important to get those employees excited about engaging and interacting. 

Let’s look at one example…Facebook. Your employees can be very effective at facilitating the growth of your Facebook page or group. But, why would you even need their help?

Here are five reasons why you should encourage your employees to get involved:

1) Great ideas can come from any level of an organization. Encouraging employees to engage on Facebook fosters collaboration and allows workers at all levels to contribute ideas.
 
2) Encouraging employee awareness of the Facebook page/group builds morale and boosts confidence. It shows the public and the employee that the organization is forward-thinking and takes itself seriously when it comes to new media. 
 
3) Employees engaging and becoming more active on the Facebook page/group will help the organization project a more positive image to the public, therefore enhancing the public’s view of the organization and its transparency.

4) Customer support. An employee can provide support and feedback online through Facebook by responding to complaints and thanking customers for comments, etc.
 
5) Employees suggesting their friends to “like” the page or join the group, helps it become more “viral” and facilitates a stronger growth of the audience on Facebook.

The next question should be, “How do I GET my employees to engage on our Facebook page or group?” That’s another blog post, but I’m thinking time off would be a great way to do it! Just kidding…well, sortof. Stay tuned…

To learn how we can help, CONTACT US!

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By: Scott Dickson

It would be very easy to come up with more than 5 reasons why your business should be utilizing social media.

Here are 5 significant reasons to consider…

1 – Establish yourself as an expert – Blog about your business and share tips and advice to help you stand apart as the expert in your field. Share those blog posts on your Facebook page and Twitter profile and your audience will come to you with questions.

2 – Word of Mouth – Your potential customers are talking to their friends and family about their purchases. If your fans and follwers trust you they’ll tell others…increasing the chances they’ll buy from you.

3 – Build Relationships – The audience you develop through social media will be more loyal and feel more connected to your business. Communicate with them on a personal level and some may become ambassadors or even evangelists for your business.

4 – Increase Website Traffic – Once you develop a sizable audience and begin posting links to products, pages, blog posts, etc. you should see an increase in traffic to your site. Measure the analytics closely and record the metrics on a monthly basis.

5 – Search Engine Optimization – Google indexes content on Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and other social sites. This creates links back to your site, which should increase your search engine rankings and bring you more business!

For more information or to get help with your social media strategy, CONTACT US!

Visit: DicksonInteractive.com

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By: Scott Dickson

OK…admit it. One of your Facebook friends posts entirely too many times each day and you’ve made the difficult decision to either hide that person’s updates…or de-friend them completely.

Hopefully you just chose to hide them. I will confess…I have done this.

As marketers, that tells us that our “fans” and “members” don’t want to be bombarded every day with 4 or 5 posts and updates from us on Facebook. They want relevant, important and useful information that they can use and pass on to their friends…maybe once a day…depending on the size of your community. 

However, on Twitter…things are different. Twitter is a micro-blog with short, quick bursts of information. Users are accustomed to getting “tweets” from the people they’re following several times a day…if not more.

So, here’s my perspective. As a business or organization, if you link Twitter to Facebook…meaning everything you post on Twitter automatically shows up on Facebook…you could be causing people to “un-fan” your page or leave your group. Remember, your goal is for people within your communities to take your posts and share them with others.

Twitter and Facebook are two separate and very different experiences. While Facebook is a more of a personal engagement, Twitter is more business-like and wide open. You should treat them as such and limit your posts on Facebook, but increase your frequency on Twitter. I hope that makes sense.

Other social media experts (hint: there is no such thing) might disagree with me on this and that’s fine. I’m merely sharing my perspective based on experiences I’ve had developing communities for my clients.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Visit: DicksonInteractive.com

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Source: Wall Street Journal

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

A growing number of businesses are tracking social-media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to gauge consumer sentiment and avert potential public-relations problems.

Ford Motor Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., among others, are deploying software and assigning employees to monitor Internet postings and blogs. They’re also assigning senior leaders to craft corporate strategies for social media.

One morning last December, Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media, saw Twitter messages alerting him to online comments criticizing Ford for allegedly trying to shut a fan Web site, TheRangerStation.com. The dispute prompted about 1,000 email complaints to Ford overnight.

Mr. Monty, who joined Ford the previous July from an advisory firm specializing in social media, didn’t wait to learn the facts. He posted messages on his Twitter page, and Ford’s, saying he was looking into the matter, adding frequent updates.

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